Carlos Mencia - busted onstage!

All right, this'll take a second, so have a seat. I do not know what is going on in the comedy clubs in L.A., but seriously, people are losing their GOTdam minds lately.

First, the whole Michael Richards thing. Then Damon Wayans went nuts. Then Andy Dick. Then Anthony Michael Hall. ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL? Is he even a comedian? Or a celebrity? Whatever. Like I said, one comedian after another is going insane in a crazy bad way in front of a paying audience.

The latest thing happened this week where a comedian basically confronted another comedian onstage at the Comedy Store, because he was accusing him of stealing his (and everyone else's) jokes.

Stealing jokes? Is that a crime? In comedian circles, yes it is, bigtime. You see, comedians can't really copywright jokes and there's no way to really prevent someone from just taking your jokes and claiming them as their own. So, it's a HUGE no-no to steal someone else's material.

Now, of course, stealing jokes is hardly new. Robin Williams is generally regarded as the master of joke stealing, to the point that most comedians will stop performing immediately if he ever walks into a club while they're onstage. Other accusations have been leveled at Denis Leary and Dane Cook, and if you really want to read an excellent article on the history of joke stealing, check out this great round-up from Radar. One highlight is this great graphic representation:



NOW! You may see that the last person referenced in the above graphic is Carlos Mencia. That's right, the guy from Comedy Central. It turns out that many comedians consider him to be as bad as Robin Williams, if not worse. However, there's a catch.

"The twist that Carlos Mencia puts on most of the jokes that he steals is that he somehow makes them all unfunny." said one comedian. "It's almost genius, in a way."

Things have gotten so bad between all the other comics and Mencia that he has been given the nickname "Carlos Menstealia". George Lopez was so mad at Mencia for stealing 13 minutes of his material for Mencia's HBO special that he beat the crap out of him backstage at the Comedy Store.

Which brings us to last Saturday night. Joe Rogan, host of Fear Factor and a comedian well known to be a believer in the no-stealing rule, had just finished his set at the Comedy Store, and was about to introduce the next act who was a comedian who had done some opening gigs for Mencia. Rogan uses "Menstealia" when referring to Mencia in the intro, and uh oh, Mencia is in the audience. Mencia comes onstage to confront Rogan, which may have been his worst mistake yet.



I'll let Joe Rogan take it from here. Go read this and then come back here to get the rest of the story. Below is the video of what comes next.



Now could this have been handled in a better fashion? Sure. Did Rogan have to be such a dick about it? Hey, all comedians are dicks, trust me. But what has been the outcome of this display? Has Mencia suffered as a result of all this?

Nope. In fact, the other way around. First, Rogan was banned from The Comedy Store. Then, in a moment of extreme turnabout, his agent, who is also Mencia's agent, was forced to drop him as a client, because Mencia said he would walk if Rogan did not apologize to him for this. Rogan refused, and now he's agentless.

And that, my friends, is just another exciting day in Hollywood. We'll have to see if Joe's integrity is worth what he's about to go through. As for the Mind of Mencia, he's headlining the Comedy Store this weekend.

There is no such thing as irony in show business.